1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the communication of messages and, more particularly, to the modification of messages during communication of the messages.
2. Description of Related Art
For many people, face-to-face communications are a preferred method for communicating messages to another person or to a group of people. Face-to-face communications may be preferred for various reasons such as (i) knowing that the other person or the group of people understand the messages being conveyed face-to-face, (ii) being able to instantly answer questions the other person or the group of people may have about the messages being conveyed face-to-face, and/or (iii) being able to gage the reaction of the other person or the group of people receiving the messages being conveyed face-to-face.
However, when face-to-face communications are not feasible, people may use other methods to communicate messages to another person or to a group of people. One such method is to communicate messages by sending the messages to the other person or to the group of people via a communication path that comprises a network. As an example, the communication path may comprise a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or a wireless phone network that allow a person to send messages to the other person or to the group of people.
Various forms of messages may be sent along a communication path. As an example, one form of messages sent along a communication path is audible messages. Audible messages, such as voice mail messages and MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) messages, may comprise encoded speech, music, and or other sounds. Another form of messages sent along a communication path are visual messages. Visual messages, such as electronic mail (e-mail) messages or Short Message Service (SMS) messages, may comprise visual text messages.
Although a person sending messages may send messages of a first form (e.g., visual messages such as e-mail messages) to intended recipients of the messages, the intended recipient may prefer to receive messages in another form (e.g., audible messages such as voice mail messages). Some service providers perform services for modifying messages so that the messages presented to the intended recipients are in the form preferred by the intended recipients. For example, the service provider Tiscali S.p.A. of Cagilari, Italy, performs a Speechmail service that modifies visual e-mail messages into audible messages. The Speechmail services allow intended recipients to listen to messages that originated as messages having visual message content.
Even though services for modifying messages, such as the Speechmail service, are available for the modifying messages according to preferences of the intended recipients, under some circumstances, it may be preferable to modify messages according to the preferences of both the message sender and the intended recipients. For example, circumstances when it would preferable to modify messages according to the preferences of both the message sender and the intended recipients may occur when the sender of the messages has visual text messages in the English language that the sender desires to send to intended recipients as audible messages, but the intended recipients only speak and understand the Japanese language. In this regard, it would be preferable to modify the sender's messages into audible messages in the Japanese language. However, if the messages are only modified according to the preferences of the sender, then the intended recipients would not be able to understand the messages. Based on these and other circumstances when it would be desirable to modify messages based on preferences of both the sender and the intended recipients, the inventors have discovered a need for an improved system and method for modifying messages.